Manning defense focuses on command failures

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Lawyers for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning are pinpointing his supervisors’ failure to take action that they say could have prevented him from disclosing classified information through WikiLeaks.

The sentencing hearing resumed Tuesday at Fort Meade, near Baltimore, with a witness who was reprimanded for failing to supervise Manning.

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kyle Balonek testified about an incident in which Manning angrily flipped over a table and had to be restrained in December 2009. Balonek says it wasn’t necessary serious enough to prompt a disciplinary report that could have led to revocation of his security clearance.

Balonek says such action is reserved for egregious misconduct.

Manning faces up to 90 years in prison for leaking documents he downloaded while working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2010.